


Ink

by sambethe



Series: Lily Evans A-Z [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-14
Updated: 2014-01-14
Packaged: 2018-01-08 16:14:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1134787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sambethe/pseuds/sambethe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lily vs. the quill.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ink

They were going to cause her to completely lose her mind, she was sure of it. 

They had looked brilliant the first time she spotted them at the ink shop in Diagon Alley - all soft textures and bold, eye-catching shades of black, green, grey and red. Then there were the varying styles and colours of ink. Lily was overwhelmed at the sheer number of choices. It also didn't hurt that the idea of using quills seemed romantic; she imagined herself as a heroine in a Jane Austen novel, using them to write letters to far off friends and family.

Of course, that was before she sat down to use one of the infernal things and ended up with ink over a good portion of her hand and half way up the bottom of her arm. She thought she would get better with practise, but three weeks into her first term she was still struggling to master the art of not causing the ink to smear across the parchment or end up covering her and her clothes.

Lily, who was sitting on her bed attempting to write eight inches on the properties of the various types of hellebore and their uses in potions, tossed her quill across the dorm room and flopped back on her bed.

'This is completely ridiculous!'

Mary looked up from where she was lounging across her own bed. 'What's wrong?'

Lily grumbled and sat back up, reaching for the drawer in her bedside table. 'I swear those things were invented by some pixie bent on driving people mad.'

'Trouble with your quill again?' Mary asked. 'We could probably find a spell to keep it from causing that mess.'

Ignoring her, Lily continued to dig through her drawer until she found what she was looking for. Towards the back her fingers brushed against the smooth plastic of her biro. She smiled as she pulled it out and closed the drawer. Its ink was nothing special, just a simple, flat black, but when she brought it to the parchment it didn't smear and her wrist didn't come away with spots of ink on it. She'd have to write her mum and ask her to send some more. Maybe she could find her some with some pretty coloured inks or perhaps a few textas.

'I don't know why you like those things,' Mary said, 'they're so boring looking.'

Lily shrugged. 'Just used to them, I guess. And it is nice to have something familiar amongst all of this.' She waved her hand vaguely.

Mary frowned. 'Is it weird being here? I mean, does this all feel a bit foreign?'

'Sometimes.' Lily paused. 'But not often. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. It's nice to feel like I belong.'

'I'm glad you're here.'

Lily grinned and looked down at her parchment.

'But enough of this mush,' Mary continued. 'My sister told me about a way to get into the kitchens after hours. Do you want to meet the house-elves?

Lily cocked her head and glanced up at Mary.

'House-elves?'


End file.
